US stocks rise on mostly solid earnings

New York: Wall Street stocks rose early Tuesday as a batch of mostly solid corporate earnings offset anxiety over rising interest rates.

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 24,505.22, up 0.2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.3 percent to 2,678.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 7,156.73.

Highlights from the deluge of earnings included industrial equipment maker Caterpillar, which rose 3.0 percent after significantly lifting its profit forecast based on strong demand throughout its businesses.

Verizon also advanced, gaining 2.2 percent after first-quarter earnings jumped 31 percent to $4.7 billion.

On the downside, shares of Dow-member 3M sank 5.7 percent after first-quarter earnings plunged following a $897 million charge connected to settling a lawsuit with the state of Minnesota over release of chemicals by the industrial company that allegedly polluted drinking water.

Google-parent Alphabet fell 2.6 percent on worries about higher costs even as quarterly earnings soared more than 70 percent to $9.4 billion.

Analysts are watching the yield on the 10-year US Treasury, which finally hit the psychological 3.0 percent threshold.

The increase could be a signal the Federal Reserve will need to speed up interest rate increases, a major source of investor unease.

AFP